Disbarred lawyer, teacher are forced off road and shot en route from NYC

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NEW CASTLE, N.Y. — A disbarred lawyer and his wife who live on the same cul-de-sac as former President Bill Clinton were forced off the road as they drove home from Manhattan and were shot, police said.

Carlos and Peggy Perez-Olivo remained hospitalized Monday after being attacked Saturday night, according to police. Northern Westchester Hospital would not disclose their conditions.

The couple — he a recently disbarred criminal defense lawyer, she a teacher’s assistant — were driving to their Chappaqua home from Manhattan when they were shot, New Castle Town Police said.

According to police, the couple was on a desolate part of Route 100 when a car cut in front of their sport utility vehicle and forced them off the road around 11 p.m.

A man with a gun got out and entered the SUV through a back door, and Carlos Perez-Olivo fought with him, police said.

“Mr. Olivo attempted to wrestle the gun from him, and there were several shots fired,” Detective Sgt. Marc Simmons said.

Victim drives to hospital
Carlos Perez-Olivo, 58, was shot in the abdomen but managed to drive 10 miles to the hospital as the gunman and two others believed to be in the attacker’s vehicle fled, police said. Peggy Perez-Olivo, 55, was shot in the head.

Police said they had not been able to identify any suspects or determine a motive. They could not say whether the shooting was a random attack or connected to Carlos Perez-Olivo’s work as a criminal defense attorney.

He had practiced law in New York from 1980 until he was disbarred in August, according to state court records. State Supreme Court appellate judges found he “repeatedly refused to return unearned funds or retainers to clients.”

Carlos Perez-Olivo was previously accused of incompetence for failing to recall portions of his closing argument in defense of a waiter convicted of second-degree murder for fatally shooting his wife’s lover last year in a Manhattan subway station.

There was no home telephone listing for him or his wife in Chappaqua. No one answered the door Monday at the couple’s blue and white Colonial home, one of eight houses in the cul-de-sac. It is three doors away from the home of the former president and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, which has a guardhouse at the foot of its driveway.

Acquaintances said they were mystified by the shooting.

“They’re a very nice couple, great folks, sweet people,” said their landlord, Gerard Gorman.

Spokespeople for the Clintons did not immediately respond to requests for comment.